The Boss had only killed two soldiers this time around. Sarzina Acacia and lieutenant Tanithil Alnus had done their best to control who got into close contact with the kirin. It seemed unable to make contact with certain people, after all. No reason not to use that weakness against it.

No other creature was any threat to any of them, but they were exhausting to deal with in such large numbers. And killing any bunnies had taken priority.

Anyone with low Toughness was sweating and panting by now, but luckily that number was relatively low. Zina didn't have a lot of Toughness herself despite her high level. It also wasn't needed in her case. Her skill with spells and her crossbow meant no creature could come close enough to harm her, and oddly enough none had actually tried. She didn't have time to wonder why that was with all that was going on around her.

The Boss once again killed, they focussed on advancing forward. Killing creatures was second priority for a moment as they tried to catch up with the frontline.

The end of the otherwise volcano themed 4th room of the 6th Floor contained a small forest. While a wonder and a mystery, as Dungeons normally couldn't mix environments like this, it too, would have to wait. Getting to the Core was more urgent than Zina's curiosity.

The frontline was once again arguing with each other before the door to the next room. However, this time it seemed more confused and frustrated and less aimed at each other. Getting closer Zina noticed the once big, but now broken, quartzite hammer laying on the red grass close to the door. At first Zina assumed it must have broken when they tried to break the door, only for her to discard the idea.

The door was completely dent free, after all.

"What's the problem this time, captain?"

"The stupid door won't break!" Gleditsia simply shouted in response.

Zina raised an eyebrow at this, but decided it wasn't the time to verbally question why they couldn't open a simple 2nd tier puzzle door. One needed a Strength Score of 38 to ram open such a door after all. Maybe all the highest level Strength Classers were killed by the Boss? But one only needs a Strength Score of 30 to at least do some damage to it. There must be someone left like that.

One huff and a shrug, and she was back to solve the problem in front of her. "I'll give it a try then."

With a scowl, the captain turned away to boss someone else around.

While Zina didn’t know the exact Strength Score of Oona, she did know the cat had recently become capable of taking down a 2nd tier puzzle door like this one. A single look at her dawon followed by a head nod towards the door, had Oona ram, shoulder first, into the puzzle door.

Only for the door to open before the dawon hit it.

Zina had studied Dungeons enough to immediately tell that the next room had the most common Dungeon room size of 10×10×5 meters. To the back of the room, but taking up most of the space, there was a small stone hut. Said hut lacked a door, and 6 of the dragon-headed, feather-winged lions with antlers could be seen laying inside the hut. Four of them were the one antlered tiānlùs, while the other two were the double antlered bìxiés.

And walking around in front of the hut: 10 kobolds.

With the door mysteriously open Zina attempted to shoot a crossbow bolt at the nearest kobold, before it could harm Oona - why hadn't it already attacked? -, only for the door to slam shut again.

"Oona!" Zina was immediately panicking. Realistically she knew Oona could take care of herself, but her emotions had temporarily overridden her reason.

The door opened again and the dawon ran out, having heard her master call her.

"Oona!" The relief was obvious in Zina’s voice. But a quick hug around the giant feline's neck was all there was time for. Zina could hear that the Boss had returned for another round. She needed to solve this puzzle so they could keep moving.

With the panic gone, confusion instead filled Zina's mind. Why can Oona enter when no one else can?

Put your weapons down

Or beware The Greedy Pacifists

the riddle on the door said, written in the holy blue color of the System.

Oh! She's the only one of us to not carry any weapons!

The riddle seemed straight forward, but potentially dangerous to solve as it might leave them vulnerable to attack. The riddle promised 'The Greedy Pacifists' wouldn't attack them if they solved the puzzle and put their weapons down. Which would explain why the creatures hadn't attacked Oona.

The 'put your weapons down' part might also mean that to solve the puzzle, one can't attack 'The Greedy Pacifists' just like they can't attack you.

But what about the other creatures? Are they a part of 'The Greedy Pacifists'?

Then again. It was only the 6th Floor. Creatures here couldn't be a higher level than level 12. They would likely be okay even without any weapons.

…

Unless the Boss came after them…

Hmm… I could just trap it…

But first Zina needed to know if the door would actually open if someone put their weapons on the ground.

It did! But the moment she tried to pick her weapons back up, the door would close again. With one last test it was revealed, the same thing would happen should someone else try to walk through the door.

Relaying all the new information to anyone who would listen, Zina went back to join the backline fighting the Boss. The kirin was already wounded, unable to touch anyone near it and blocked from getting close to someone it could.

After restraining it under her Forest spells, she ordered the backline to stop attacking it. "It can't respawn if it doesn't die!" It annoyed her that she hadn't thought of that earlier. Normally she would have had that realization much sooner, but the sudden urgency had kept her mind busy.

The soldiers followed her order and shortly thereafter they all entered the 5th room of the Floor, without carrying their weapons.

They were almost done after all, and most of the weapons were almost broken anyway. So it didn't take much to convince people to leave them behind.

And it wasn't like they were going to go all the way back alone. Even with the Boss trapped, the many enemies had tired them.

At first, 'The Greedy Pacifists' didn't attack. They observed them closely. But that was all.

And all the creatures, which had been attacking them from behind, stayed outside the room. Must be a feature of the room. Most likely a part of the puzzle and thus in place to help ensure no one fights in here.

Then one of the privates noticed what appeared to be 25 cm high, 5 cm radius wide stone jars with screw lids likewise made of stone. The guy wanted a closer look and went to pick one up. Before he could touch it, the two nearest kobolds growled at him, causing him to freeze in place.

Like everyone else, the captain heard the warning growls and instinctively turned to look. Unlike everyone else, the captain then ignored the warning.

"I knew there was alcohol in here!" Gleditsia shouted as he tried to grab as many jars as he could carry. In response every creature in the room roared as they attacked the captain. Unarmed and with his arms full of stone jars, the captain couldn't put up a fight. A couple of privates attacked the kobolds in response, only to be killed as well, while taking a single kobold with them down.

"Stay still!" Zina shouted, hoping to prevent further blood splatter. "They are Greedy Pacifists! They only attack if you try to steal!" Having taken command of the company several times before in this Dungeon run and with great results, they had no trouble obeying her.

And she might also be the one in command…? Zina wasn't sure about that. As a medic Miss Pinckneya couldn't be in command, unless it was to overrule an order from the commanding officer based on her medical knowledge. While Zina as the future dungeon mistress was the most important person to keep alive on this mission, and while her knowledge on Dungeon meant she was listened to, she also wasn't an actual part of the military.

Lieutenant Alnus must be the commanding officer now then. Zina quickly concluded. The other two lieutenants had been killed by the Boss earlier. One in the original fight, the second in the first surprise attack.

Luckily, Alnus was one of the few mysteriously immune to the Boss's attacks. Should it succeed in getting loose, it wouldn't be able to kill their last lieutenant like it had killed the other two.

As Zina had expected, no creature moved to attack them now that their jars weren't getting stolen.

"Don't touch anything. Just leave." Zina ordered the company, small as it now was. How many do we even have left?

Too few… Definitely too few.

No one was supposed to die!

Exiting the home of The Greedy Pacifists, they arrived at the Safezone between the 6th and 7th Floor.

A Safezone. Not the Core Room.

At least our weapons are here. Zina thought with a sigh, before ordering the company to find their weapons in the pile, so they could carry on. Alnus was quick to show his support, and tried to raise morale by ordering them to then take a small break. Even with one half staying on the stairs of the Safezone and both rooms on either end of it, very few had enough space to sit down.

But it was too late to turn around now.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

The Boss did a good job of getting rid of another three spellcasters. The remaining two were the Lightning Mage and the Healer, and neither of these had a karma level of less than 25%, so my Boss could do no more on that front.

Instead I had it focus on harming as many elves as it could, so the Healer had to use mana to save them, while taunting the Lightning Mage into casting more spells. The first of which seemed to work well as the Healer began to only heal immediately life treating wounds.

But the Lightning Mage wasn't so easily taunted and used her spells sparsely and effectively.

And with the Healer mostly healing using a Class Skill, there were now very few opportunities for any spells to go wonky.

The elves had skipped almost all my puzzles. The firewall had been solved and my illusion puzzle was considered failed, not skipped, as the goal was to simply trust me not to lie when I say to go left. They didn't trust me not to lie, so they failed. Every other puzzle up until then had been skipped.

With all the extra Toughness from the skipped puzzles, The Door of Pacifism could no longer be broken open. The last door they had broken had taken their physically strongest remaining soldier 5 minutes to slowly break down, where he otherwise would have been able to oneshot it.

The captain - everyone called him that, so it must be his rank - had simply shouted at him for being weak.

If only they had realized they simply had to knock!

My Door of Pacifism was - unlike every other door I had made until then - only one part of the actual puzzle. So, even if they had been able to break the door itself, the puzzle would still be active.

It also meant the puzzle couldn't actually be skipped, which was both a good and a bad thing.

Mostly good though!

As the Lightning Mage eventually realized, the puzzle was solved by passing through the room without attacking or stealing. Had they broken the door they would have been able to carry their weapons with them. But as a part of the puzzle - or Challenge Room really - every member of The Greedy Pacifists - which included their 6 pixius, two unicorn bunnies and one small mimic - would get a 25% bonus to their Ability Scores when defending themselves against armed opponents, while in the Challenge Room.

They would likewise get a 20% bonus when defending their items from thieves.

So, while The Greedy Pacifists didn't get their 25% bonus this time, they did get a 20% bonus when the captain tried to steal their olive oil, boosting their Ability Scores to that of a level 21.

This bonus was then lost as two of the elves attacked in revenge, but with the two elves being level 28 and 32, super exhausted, already sore, outnumbered, and - most importantly - unarmed, they didn't really stand a chance.

Their aura had been a neutral gray, though, so I did feel a bit bad about having killed them.

Not the captain, though. He was an asshole.

I know I can still attack them in the Safezone, but should I? It seems pretty unfair to me.

Hmm… Let's take stock of the situation. If they're still resting when I'm done, then I'll attack.

So, 31 down, 43 elves remaining. I'm almost halfway there! And only 4 more bad guys till I can tier up!

Not that I'm gonna do that now. I need all the mana I have for phase 4. Can't spare a drop of mana for the tier up.

Hmm… Maybe waiting a bit is actually a good idea for me. It'll mean I have more mana for more Fire wyrms.

But it'll also mean more mana for the Lightning Mage and the Healer…

Hmm… The next Floor will likely force them to spend plenty of mana to make water, though, so maybe it would still be worth it to wait… Or maybe entering my 7th Floor with less mana means the heat will end up affecting them more.

…

They can't skip my puzzles anymore, so they'll end up stuck in the heat for a while anyway…

…

Is it bad that I don't want them all to die…?

I know they want to enslave me and come from a nation of slavers. But their auras tell me, not all of them are bad!

I mentally sighed.

I guess I have to decide if I'm going to attempt to kill them all. Or aim to only kill the bad elves.

Hmm…

I don't like killing innocent people, so I want to avoid killing them all if that is an option.

But if any of them survives they will report back with most of my tricks, making me even more vulnerable next time!

And there will be a next time! I'll either have to truly lose or win many rounds like this before they give up!

… At least that's the impression I get. They might give up after seeing how many I've killed.

Still. While it strategically seems like a good idea to kill them all, I don't want to do that…

Hmm… While plenty of them aren't bad people, they're all still trying to cage my Core and control my decisions, which I naturally won't allow.

…

Isn't this a form of self defense? Not of life but of freedom? Yeah, I would say so! I feel a bit better about it now, but I still want to avoid it if possible.

…

Can I even kill them all? Is there actually any possibility of me actually killing the Lightning Mage and her dawon?

…

The heat might get to them, and if the Mage runs out of mana, the Fire wyrms will be able to take them all out.

…

I don't think anything else has a chance against those two.

So, how likely is it that the Mage will run out of mana?

…

I have no idea. Surely mana works differently for sapients than it does for Dungeon Cores, and since the System chose not to answer the question for me, I know I won't get any help on that front.

Another mental sigh.

So I guess it's all up to me.

As I couldn't taunt the Mage into using more mana, I doubt she's suddenly going to start using a lot. So, no. I don't think she'll run out of mana, and so I don't think I can kill her.

And I guess I don't even know if the puzzles will keep them in the heat for long. I don't actually know how strong the dawon is after all. She might actually be able to break the door down. The cat is almost a 7th tier, so maybe…

Nah. I doubt it. While strong, she appears to be more Dexterity based, while also having a good deal of Toughness. With a spread like that, I doubt she can also have the needed Strength Score to dent one of my doors. The current minimum is 47, after all, so even with her level up to 59+, she would have to only have two main Scores with one of them being Strength for her to be strong enough. With three it seems highly unlikely.

… Not impossible. Just really unlikely.

And now that I'm thinking about it, only half the puzzles on that Floor even have an actual door to break. So it should still keep them there a while.

Though, probably not all that long. The Lightning Mage seems really smart. She might just solve them super quickly…

…

Could she 'skip' the puzzles using magic?

In theory I guess she would have to have an Intelligence Score of at least 47, like with a physical attack.

… And something about having learnt the spell in question, I believe.

System? Can you confirm this? Can a puzzle door be broken through spells? And does it use one's Intelligence Score?

Dungeon puzzles have a Toughness Score of X×10+10 with X being the Floor tier the puzzle is on. Unlike beings's Toughness Scores, Dungeon puzzles suffer no damage at all from attacks based on Ability Scores lower than the puzzle's Toughness Score. However, attacks based on Ability Scores more than 150% of the puzzle's Toughness Score will break the puzzle in one solid attack.

… Plural. Ability Scores was pluralized. That's a yes then. Magic can be used to break my doors open.

…

Back to the main topic then. I've concluded that I don't believe I can kill the Mage. And if I can't kill her, then I can't kill everyone anyway, so my tricks will get out anyway!

So, I might as well resume only killing the bad guys.

…

What a relief that is!

I don't like having to kill in self defense. Though I know it's sometimes necessary.

A mana break it is!

After a bit of thought, I ordered my creatures to no longer come from the next rooms of a Floor and to try and act as docile as possible unless attacked. I decided to still have them enter from behind, but had them change their behavior. Before they would actively charge towards the elves while making battlecries, thus inviting the elves to attack my creature, so my creatures could answer back in self defense. Now they would move more slowly, walking instead of sprinting, and their battlecries would come only after getting attacked.

This change would most definitely majorly confuse the elves. But how exactly they would react, I didn't know.

The change might make the elves realize why my creature had 'karmic' in their names and stop attacking them. Or maybe it would simply make them scared as they would have no idea what had changed.

I didn't really care about the details. The confusion alone was enough reason for me to make the change. The constant horde of attacking creatures were mostly only good for making the army tired.

…

So, how is the labour going?

As I could see everything in my Dungeon at once, I naturally already knew the answer to that question. While close, the elves hadn't actually been in my Dungeon for a full 3 hours yet, so the actual birthing part had yet to begin. Still. It was clearly going to be a quick labour, as she had already dilated 5 cm.

…

Not that I actually knew anything about giving birth. I had just overheard them talking.

I took the time to have the mimic of the 9th Floor inform the Tribe of my progress.

Well… Without revealing that I didn't think I could kill all of them, that is…

Hearing how many much higher level elves I had killed made them even more in awe of me!

…

I should probably stop encouraging their worship of me…

But I like being worshiped!